Bottle-stopper



3o l rection, and I add to the before-named de- A vices a bail-turner pivoted at the neck-band UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

LEWIS II. IROOME, OF JERSEY CITY, VNIVJRSEY.

BOTTLE-STO PPER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 603,724, dated May 10, 1898.

Application filed February 6, 1897. Serial No. 622.257. -(No model.)

To aZZ 10710711. it may cm1/cern:

Beit knovsn that I, LEWIS II. BROOME, acitizen of the United States, residing at Jersey City, in the county of IIudson and State of New Jersey, have invented an Improvement in Bottle-Stoppers, of which the following is a specification.

A bottle-stopper has been connected with a bail pivoted at its ends upon a lever and the lever pivoted upon the neck wire or band; butin this forni the stopper is liable to swing upon the bail and interfere with the discharge of the liquid as poured from the bottle, and

the stopper is also liable to become misplaced, so that it is not easily applied in again closing the bottle except by an experienced per son. In some instances edorts have been made to secure the stopper to the bail-wire, but they are liable to injury, and it has been dillicult to cause thestopperto takea uniform bearing upon the mouth of the bottle.

In my present improvement the stopperand bail-wire are rigidly connected together by a binding-wire, so that the stopper is not liable to be swung out of its proper position in relation tothe bail-wire, and the lever that intervenes between the bail-wire and the neckband acts to raise the stopper off of the mouth of the bottle vertically, or nearly so, or to restore the same to position in the opposite diand acting upon the bail to swing the bailand stopper into the proper position for closing the bottle or for removing the stopper out of the way of the liquid as poured out of such bottle.

In the drawings, Figure lis a side view, and Fig. 2 is an elevation at right angles to Fig. 1, representing the stopper in position upon the bottle; and Fig. 3 is an elevation representing the stopper as thrown back.

The bottle A is of any desired size and charaeter, and the stopper B is provided with a button-head 2 at its lower end, and the elastic washer C, usually of india-rubber, is sprung over the head 2 and around the neck of the stopper', and instead of using a conical neck with a flange or shoulder at the upper end, as now usual, the neck is formed with concave sides 3,1larin g outward and wit-hout any shoulder at the upper part, so that when pressure is applied to the -stopper B the taper of the neck above the washer first acts to spread the washer and then the washer assumes a conoidal form and is pressed outward and downward by the stopper, as shown by dotted lines in Fig. 2, so as to firmly hold the elastic washer against the mouth of the bottle at the rounding inner edge of the glass, thus insuring a perfect action of the elastic washer in closing the mouth of the bottle.

The bail-wire Dis pivoted at- 4 to the lever E, which in turn is pivoted at 5 to the neckband F. These parts, except as hereinafter specified, are similar to those that have been heretofore made use of-that is t0 say, the

neck-band is bent up with eyes for the reception of the ends of the lever E, and usually the neck-band is made of two pieces of wire, that which passes half-way around the neck at one side being of sufficiently heavy wire to have the pivot-eyes or projections in the ends of it, and the other portion of the neckwire being separate; but in many forms of bottle-Stoppers now in use the neck-wire is made in one piece.

The lever E is made in the form of a loop with the ends received in the eyes of the neckband and with eyes for the pivots 4 of the bail-wire; but in bottle-Stoppers of this ger.- eral character the lever E has usually set closely againstthe sides of the bottle-neck, and hence it has been difficult to apply the fingers to the lever for giving motion to the saine. To rectify this diilculty, the lever E is made longer than usual, so that the side portions 6 are nearly parallel and stand out from the sides of the bottle-neck, so that the fingers can freely be passed in between the lever and the bottle to pry the lever outward and away from the bottle, and the lever only rests against the side of the bottle-neck near the middle portion of such lever. This I find a convenience in opening the bottle.

The bail-wire D is made in one piece extending across the stopper, and a bindingwire G is made use of for connecting the bail c and stopper rigidly together. It is usually advantageous to make a peripheral groove around the stopper and to bend the middle portion of the bail-wire in a selnicircnlar form horizontally and to form an eye in one end of the binding-wire around the bail-wire and then to pass such binding-wire along the peripheral groove of the stopper and bend the same into an eye around the other part of the bail-wire to tightly hold such bail-wire and stopper together, and the binding-wire performs its duty also of holding the stopper and bail rigidly together in cases where the bindin g-wire G passes through a hole or opening in the stopper itself, as illustrated in Fig. 3, the binding-wire extending in both cases from the bend in the integral bail-wire at one side to the bend at the other side.

The object of the binding-wire G is to hold the bail D and stopper in a fixed relative position, so that .the stopper docs not swing or change position when the bail is swung aside from over the end of the bottle, and when the bail is brought back into position over the mouth, as hereinafter described, the stopper will be in its proper position to descend upon the mouth of the bottle and close the Same etectually.

lVhen the stopper has been lifted by theI lever acting to raise the bail-wire, the lever can swing entirely over the end of the bottleneck, so as to be adjacent to the stopper itself, as indicated in Fig. 3, and in this position the parts can remain and will be out of the way while the contents of the bottle are being poured out, and I make use of a bailturner ll in the form of a forked lever with eyes S at the ends, that surround and slide upon the sides of the bail-wire, and this bailturner may be pivotcd at- 9 upon the neckba-nd F, as seen in Fig. 3, or it may be pivoted upon the inward-turned ends of the lever E, forming the pivot 5, as seen in Fig. 2. In either instance the bail-turner is adapted to act upon the bail at each side simultaneously, and by pressing down the projecting portion of the bail-turner the eyes S act upon the bail to swing the bail and the stopper and bring the stopper into line directly over the mouth of the bottle, and by having the bailturner of the proper shape the projecting end of the bail-turner will come into contact with the side of the bottle-neck and arrest the further movement when the stopper is in its proper position in relation to the mouth of the bottle, and the lever E is now to be act-ed upon to bring the stopper down upon the mouth of the bottle and to close the same tightly.

By the foregoing construction facility is given for actuating the lever in releasing the stopper and in lifting the same bodily from the mouth of thc bottle, and then the parts are swung backward out of the way, and when the bottle is to bc rccorked or stopped the bail-turner is acted upon to bring the bail and stopper into position, and tliis'can be accomplished with great facility, because the operator sim ply has to press upon the outer end of the bail-turning lever, and then thelever E is swung down and the stopper compressed firmly into its place, and these operations can be performed without the attendant inspecting the movements, and hence the bail-turner formsa very important appendage to the stopper in bottles that are frequently opened and closed or employed in places where there vis but a dim light.

I claim as my inventionl. The combination with the stopper having a peripheral groove, of an integral bailwire having a curved portion to pass around the stopper in such groove and bent to extend down at each side of the stopper and the neck and a binding-wire extending from one bend to the other to hold the bail and stopper rigidly togcther, substantially as specified.

2. The combination with the stopper and a bail-wire rigidly connected thereto, ot' a lever to which the lower ends of the bail-wire are pivotcd, and a bail-turning lever for swinging the bail and stopper and for supporting them when the bottle is open, substantially as set forth.

3. The combination with the stopper and the bail-wire, of a binding-wire for holding the bail-wire and the stopper rigidly together,

a neck-band and a lever pivoted upon the neck-band and pivoted to the bail-wire, a bailtnrner having eycs at its ends sliding upon the bail-wire and a pivot at the neck-band for the bail-turner, whereby the stopper is brought into position above the mouth of the bottle by the action of the bail-turner, substantially as set forth.

L. II. BROOME.

lVitnesses:

GEO. T. IINCKNEY, S. T. IIAVILAND.

Signed by me this 27th dayot'` January, roo 

